Orbán’s letter to Putin details Hungarian PM’s thoughts on peace

Following the publication of the official results of the Russian presidential election, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán sent a letter to President Vladimir Putin to congratulate him on his recent re-election, the prime minister’s press chief said on Thursday.

Orbán said it was a matter of satisfaction that cooperation between Hungary and Russia was “based on mutual respect, enabling the discussion of important issues, even amid the current difficult geopolitical situation”.

Orbán said Hungary stood on the side of peace, “and we are convinced that maintaining dialogue is an essential condition for establishing the quickest possible peace”.

He assured the Russian president of Hungary’s readiness to enhance cooperation with Russia in areas not restricted by international law, Havasi said.

Political director: Only diplomacy can end Russia-Ukraine war

Unlike belligerent Brussels, Hungary’s standpoint is that the Russia-Ukraine war can only be ended through diplomacy, for which a ceasefire is a precondition, Balázs Orbán, the prime minister’s political director, said in Brussels on Thursday.

An increasing number of people in Brussels are discussing aspects of support for Ukraine that risk the outbreak of a third world war, a “doomsday scenario”, the official told Hungarian journalists on the opening day of the European Union summit.

“What’s at stake is serious,” the PM’s political director said.

He said that several statements by “serious leaders of Brussels and member states” had come to light in recent days that pushed events “in a direction that Hungary has been trying to avoid for two years”, piling on pressure to involve NATO troops in the war in Ukraine and risking the war’s escalation.

Peace talks “must start as soon as possible”, he said, adding that political leaders in Brussels should “pull away from the current spiral of escalation”.

Orbán noted Hungary’s stance on sending weapons to Ukraine: “We do not support sending weapons in any context or within any procedure. We are unwilling to make Hungary party to the war.”

Also, if proposed sanctions were to conflict with Hungary’s fundamental national interest, “we will stop those too”, he said.

He said Europe should be able to defend itself and guarantee its own security. But given its reliance on others whose geopolitical interests differed from its own, he added, Europe was in a position of strategic weakness.

Developing Europe’s military industry and armed forces would be crucial in terms of fortifying European sovereignty, he said, adding that Hungary would partner with any initiative at European level that advanced Europe’s military industry and armed forces.

The June European parliamentary election could result in the predominance of pro-peace politicians in the EP, and this could possibly determine what happens in respect of the war in Ukraine.

Orbán: Nuclear energy only way to produce sustainable, safe electricity

Only nuclear energy can produce large quantities of cheap, safe and sustainable electricity, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in Brussels on Thursday.

Speaking at the Nuclear Energy Summit 2024, organised by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Orbán noted that Hungary has been using nuclear energy for some 50 years, “and this provides a stable basis for the safety of our energy supply”.

Around half of Hungary’s electricity is produced by its nuclear plant, which covers about one-third of its demand, he said.

“Based on this experience, we decided not only to maintain our already existing capacity, but to invest more into nuclear, and to increase its share into 70 percent when it comes to national electric supply,” Orbán said in his speech delivered in English.

“The challenges we have been faced with recently have further raised the significance of safe and secure supply of energy,” he said.

“The question became absolutely obvious: how can we generate big quantity of electricity in a cheap, safe, sustainable and environmentally friendly way. The answer is clear: it is only the nuclear way of generating electricity which can simultaneously satisfy all these requirements.”

Orbán said that “a new capacity of 2,400 megawatt will be connected to the grid” at the beginning of the next decade.

“This will enable us to avoid imports of 3.5 billion cubic metres of natural gas every year, and our annual CO2 emission will be decreased by 17 million tonnes, which equals 1.5 times more than the emission of the entire Hungarian transportation sector and three times more compared what all Hungarian forests can digest.

“We are happy to note that regardless of the geopolitical difficulties, a wide range international, professional and scientific cooperations still exist on the field of nuclear energy, while Russia became the number one Uranium supplier of the United States this year, a number of American, German, French, Swedish, Swiss and even Austrian sub-contractors are working together with the Russian constructor of our nuclear expansion project.”

“It is the interest of all of us to prevent nuclear energy to become hostage of geopolitical conflicts, hypocrisy and ideological debates. Therefore let me finally thank all of you to interfere into the European Court case regarding our nuclear investment and to ensure the safe delivery of nuclear fuel to our existing plant.”

Speaking to journalists, Orbán reiterated that the issue of energy often became hostage to an ideological approach which, he said, was “bad”, arguing that energy was neither an ideological nor a geopolitical question, and should be rescued from that “trap”.

Orbán stated Hungary’s full support for nuclear energy as the only energy source that did not degrade the environment while providing large quantities of energy.

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